Budget airline Norwegian Air is expanding its Shannon to New York flights to a daily service from October this year.
The airline, which began flying from Shannon in July 2017, will today begin selling seats for its daily service due to begin on October 28th.
Norwegian’s increased capacity means Shannon will now have its largest number of US services in more than 17 years.
The decision, Shannon's managing director Andrew Murphy said, "clearly demonstrates Norwegian's commitment at Shannon and will bring our transatlantic capacity to 565,000 seats".
The airport's chief executive, Matthew Thomas, said Norwegian's increased capacity "proves the airport's importance as a driving force for growth and creates fantastic opportunities for the business and leisure industry along the Wild Atlantic Way".
Collaboration
“This expanded service is the result of a close collaboration involving a dedicated team of Shannon Airport and Norwegian Air. It illustrates the huge market there is for the unique Irish tourism product on this side of the island,” he added.
Aviation statistics for the first nine months of 2017, the latest period for which figures are available, show that passenger numbers at Shannon fell 5.2 per cent to 1.25 million. That compares to growth at all other international airports in the Republic.
Separately, Aer Lingus-owner IAG is reportedly considering a bit for Norwegian in a deal that could value the company at about €2.4 billion.
